Where is the Deputy's empathy for private renters who want to buy?

People are struggling to pay their rent and to raise deposits. Where is the Deputy's empathy for them? He would offer them €1,000 with one hand and take €20,000-----

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle might allow me a little bit of extra time because my time was taken by Sinn Féin.

Where is Sinn Féin's empathy for private renters who want to buy? It would give them €1,000 tax credit per year-----

-----and take €20,000 off them-----

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the protection of the Chair. Where is Sinn Féin's empathy for private renters who want to buy? It would give them €1,000 tax credit per year-----

Where is Sinn Féin's empathy for private renters who want to buy? It would give them a €1,000 tax credit per year and take €20,000 off them by abolishing the help-to-buy scheme. That scheme has helped more than 30,000 individuals and couples to buy their own home since it was established.

It will help tens of thousands more to buy a home and Sinn Féin would take that away. What have we done for renters in this budget?

The help-to-buy scheme has been continued. We are investing more in social housing, affordable housing-----

-----and cost rental housing, which will help private renters. As well as that, we have brought in a rent freeze in real terms, making sure rents cannot go up by more than the rate of inflation. We may modify that again to bring that figure down.

On a point of order, the Deputy, who has demonstrated no empathy for people who want to buy their own home, has accused me of a lack of empathy. I can put up with that. He has also accused me of dishonesty. That is not okay. It is out of order and he should withdraw it.

I am done. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am sorry to hear about what Rosie is experiencing and what her family must be going through. I thank the Deputy for writing to me about it as well. I have the details I need and will follow it up with Children's Health Ireland during the week and get back to the Deputy about it as soon as I get a reply. My understanding from the Deputy's letter is the surgery was scheduled for 4 October but, on the Wednesday before the surgery, her mother got a phone call to say it was …

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Deputy Harkin raises a valid question on the ring-fencing of some of the carbon tax for green schemes and farmers, but I do not think it is the full picture in terms of the budget. What we agreed to when the Government was formed was that a proportion of the carbon tax would be ring-fenced for social welfare to increase the fuel allowance. We did that and we stand over it, but also that a significant proportion of the carbon tax would be ring-fenced for climate action. That includes retrofitting, most of which is h…

A large portion of the carbon tax proceeds will go towards increasing the fuel allowance and a lot of people in rural Ireland will get that increase. In fact, they are getting it this week, and if not this week then next week. A lot of the retrofitting that is happening is in rural areas too. The same goes for the rewetting of bogs and so on. A very large amount of the money that is raised from the carbon tax is going back into rural areas. I restate the commitment the Government has made: €1.5 billion in proceeds …

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